Sellers of quality goods have long been plagued by the sale of counterfeit goods. Counterfeit goods are an imitation of the quality goods and are usually made with a malicious intent to deceive buyers into believing that they are purchasing the quality goods. Counterfeit goods benefit from the reputation of the quality goods that they imitate. Counterfeit goods sellers oftentimes manufacture the counterfeit goods from components of lower quality than those components used to manufacture the quality goods. The presence of counterfeiters continues to expand. Oftentimes, the counterfeiters dedicate significant factory space to the manufacture of counterfeit goods and can produce high volumes of counterfeit goods in these factories. The counterfeiters sell their counterfeit goods at a cost that is lower than (and sometimes significantly lower than) the cost of the authentic goods. In this way, the sale of counterfeit goods has become a very profitable, albeit illegal, business.
Manufacturers of authentic goods must defend the integrity of their quality goods. Many research and development resources are invested by such manufacturers in developing and selling authentic goods. One way to help maintain the integrity of these goods is to help prevent counterfeiters from selling counterfeit goods. Some consumers unknowingly purchase counterfeit goods believing that they are authentic goods. The counterfeit sellers may lie to these consumers and allege that the counterfeit goods are the authentic goods. Some consumers purchase counterfeit goods (most often made from lower quality materials and manufacturing processes than the authentic goods) and mistake the counterfeit goods for the authentic goods. Other consumers knowingly purchase counterfeit goods. In any case, the reputation of the manufactures of authentic goods suffers because their brand name (or other commercial association with the authentic goods) becomes associated with lower quality counterfeit goods. Brand names are used to identify the source of the goods and are a very valuable marketing and business tool for the authentic manufacturers. Sellers of authentic goods lose profits when consumers knowingly or unknowingly purchase counterfeit goods rather than the quality good.
Certain anti-counterfeit methods have been developed that help to identify counterfeit goods during a sale. For example, the quality goods may exhibit a distinguishing feature or mark that clearly identifies its origin. The counterfeit goods may be manufactured by a method that is different that the manufacturing method employed to create the quality goods and thus has different physical qualities in the final product. Oftentimes, the manufacturers and/or sellers of quality goods place a distinguishing code or other identifying mark upon the quality good before it is available for sale. Such distinguishing codes and marks help a seller of quality goods to identify the counterfeit goods.
In recent years, many countries have developed bodies of law that protect the rights of the manufacturers of quality goods. Such laws declare that the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods is an illegal act of a civil and/or a criminal nature. The government may reserve the right to force a seller and/or manufacturer of counterfeit goods to cease the sale and manufacture of such goods in that particular country. Many of these sellers and manufacturers of counterfeit goods are physically located in another country and may be difficult to find and thus difficult to bring into a criminal or civil lawsuit. In view of this difficulty, sellers of the quality goods may try to take action against the sellers of the counterfeit goods at the point of sale of the counterfeit goods, i.e., preventing the sale from occurring.
The relatively recent development of the Internet has encouraged many consumers to buy and sell goods over the Internet. Counterfeit goods sellers have also grown savvy in selling their counterfeit goods over the Internet. Verifying the authenticity of goods being purchased over the Internet is difficult until the goods are inspected by the buyer, which is often too late to resolve an authenticity problem. The seller has already been paid by the buyer by the time the buyer receives the goods and the seller can easily shield its true identity and/or otherwise avoid being caught. Selling of counterfeit goods on the Internet is a significant problem for sellers and manufacturers of authentic goods. Many consumers are suspicious of Internet purchases for these reasons. Any consumer who has experienced a scam in which the consumer believed that they were purchasing an authentic product, but received a counterfeit product may be discouraged from purchasing any products over the Internet in the future. These problems stifle sales of authentic products over the Internet.
One method of selling goods over the Internet is through online auction websites. Such online auction websites provide Internet users with access to various listings of items for sale, typically in one location (at a central website). Consumers may browse through the listings or “shop” at their leisure for items of interest in this manner anywhere they can connect to the Internet. Consumers can compare various items sold by many different sellers and/or manufactured by one or more different sources. Consumers are able to place bids on the items for purchase in an “auction” style arrangement and/or may choose to purchase the items on the spot. The auction may continue for a fixed or an indefinite period of time.
Manufacturers and/or sellers of an item posted on an online auction website may choose to or may be required to provide various characteristics about any products sold on an online auction website. Such characteristics may be included in the product listing or advertisement for the item on the online auction website. For example, a products' listing may be viewable through a webpage hosted by an online auctioneer. In this example, consumers are able to view the listings for various products that the consumer is considering for purchase. The consumers may be able to compare various products' listings and may be able to obtain some characteristics about the products through the products' listings before making a purchase.
In an attempt to prevent fraud or the sale of counterfeit goods, some online auctioneers require sellers to sign agreements that pledge that they will not engage in fraudulent or counterfeit activities prior to being permitted to sell any items through the online auction website. Many sellers that are willing to sell counterfeit goods are willing to sign such agreements, but do not obey the provisions of the user agreement regarding sale of fraudulent and/or counterfeit goods. If and when a counterfeit item is discovered on an online auctioneer's website, it may be removed and the seller may be reprimanded or banned from using the auction services. Significant efforts are necessary to monitor the listing on the online auctioneer's websites for the sale of counterfeit goods. Oftentimes, this monitoring process includes meticulous analysis of the listings on an individual basis by a person (i.e., a person is tasked to check individual products' listings and perform an analysis to determine whether the product is deemed counterfeit or fraudulent). The monitoring process is time-consuming, expensive, and subject to error.
Thus, while anti-counterfeiting measures according to the prior art provide a number of advantageous features, they nevertheless have certain limitations. Since many products are sold over the Internet and many counterfeit goods are sold on online auction websites, the art would greatly benefit from an anti-counterfeiting system and method that can be used with online auction websites that is capable of identifying counterfeit goods faster and more accurately. The present invention seeks to provide such a system to overcome certain limitations and drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide new features not heretofore available.